75 
Dicruridse and their Arrangement. 
which inhabits Java Horsfield^s title is adopted^ and that of 
leucoph(BUSj Vieillot, is omitted, together with Le Vaillant’s 
plate (Ois. d^Afr. 170) and description, on which Vieillot 
founded his title. While there may be some grounds for 
doubting the precise origin of Le Drongolonj there can be 
no question about LeDrongri. Le Vaillant could only have 
obtained his types from Java; and even if he got them from 
Burma, or from any other part of the area the species inhabits, 
the validity of the title would not be affected. It is true that 
Le Vaillant states with much precision that his specimens 
came from Ceylon; but no such species inhabits that island. 
In his account of Le Drongri a ventre blanc, 1. c. ( = D. leuco- 
gaster, VieilL, a description, plate, and title nowhere alluded 
to by Mr. Sharpe), Le Vaillant says that his type came from Ba¬ 
tavia, and that its upper plumage is exactly the same as that 
of Le Drongri. His description of the upper plumage of both 
species is given in similar terms j and their colouring, as shown 
by the plates (170,171), is the same. The type oiLe Drongri 
is, I believe, no longer extant (indeed Le Vaillant described 
from desiccated specimens); but that of Le Drongri a ventre 
blanc was, when I visited Leyden some years ago, in perfect 
preservation. An examination of this type specimen, and a 
comparison of it with an'authentic Javan example of D. 
leucoph(Bus, convinced me that the type was manufactured, 
and made up of a specimen of Le Drongri {D. leucophaus) 
with the white plumage of some other bird affixed to the 
underparts, so as to replace the bluish grey lower plumage of 
D. leucophcem. On expressing this conviction to Professor 
Schlegel, he most obligingly desired his taxidermist to test 
the specimen. This having been done by means of applying 
heat, the taxidermist was enabled to strip off the whole of the 
white under-plumage from the chin to the crissum in one 
piece. This, skin and all, appeared to have been taken from 
the under surface of Coccystes jacobinus, and, after having 
been fitted, to have been glued on to the plucked chin, throat, 
breast, and abdominal skin of D. leucophceus. There can be 
no possible doubt therefore that Vieillot^s title of leucophceus 
is applicable to the Javan bird, and that Horsfield^s title of 
